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What Size Images Are Stored on Microfiche?

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what-size-microfiche

Often when we are asked to convert microfiche to digital formats like PDF and TIFF, the people having them converted don't know the size of the documents contained on the microfiche themselves. So here's a short guide to what size images are stored on microfiche.

What size are the images stored on microfiche?

This can depend on the type of microfiche that you have. There are most commonly two sizes; 16mm and 35mm.

Obviously the larger the fiche is the larger the images are that will go onto it. 16mm microfiche almost always contain A4 documents or documents of a similar size or sometimes 2 A5 documents go on there to save the amount of film negatives being used.

35mm contain anything from size A3 up to A0+ depending on how much the ratio of it is reduced when transposing it onto the negative. 35mm microfiche were usually used by the likes of architects and anyone else that works with large format images.

How do I know what type of microfiche I have?

It really is as simple as measuring them. If they measure 16mm (1.6cm) or 35mm (3.5cm) then that's what they are. Much more rarely you'll find some microfiche sleeves that contain both 16mm and 35mm negatives. These are known as Combi fiche. All the different types of microfiche can be seen here.

If you'd like to know more about getting your microfiche or microfilm digitised, contact us

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Lifespan of Microfilm and Microfiche

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microfilm-life-span

 

The above chart shows the supposed lifespan of microfilm and microfiche in comparison with other modern storage solutions. We mentioned in our recent post about microfiche how one of the few advantages of microfiche today is its expected lifespan.

This doesn't change the fact that microfiche and microfilm has become an obsolete format, on the contrary, people and businesses are flocking to have them converted into digital formats, but this does show the one remaining redeeming feature of a bygone storage format.

Interested in getting your microfiche or microfilm digitised? Let us know.

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What are Microfiche?

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If you're wanting the quick answer, we'll explain it a little below but there is a lot more to microfiche than meets the eye. Microfiche have been around for almost one hundred years, since Paul Otlet and Robert Goldschmidt proposed the livre microphotographique as a way to alleviate the cost and space limitations imposed by the codex format in 1906. A lot of people believe that microfiche were invented a lot more recently than this, say in the 1950s or 1960s. However they were only commercially used in a larger capacity in around the 1920s. Shortly thereafter the rights were bought by a familiar name, the Eastman Kodak Company. So you could say that they have a lot of history.

So in short...what are microfiche?


what-are-microfiche-300x177Microfiche come in a number of sizes and type ranging from 16mm slides up to 35mm slides and a range of different sleeve / container sizes. For an in depth look at all the different microfiche / microfilm types on the market, take a look here.what are microficheTo explain about microfiche in short, microfiche are shrunken pages of information which have been put onto a film. When companies had a lot of documents or a lot of files but didn't really have the space or wanted to save a lot more space in and around their offices. In effect microfiche were the external hard drives of those days, a way to save larger files in a small place in order to save space. At the time it would've been truly revolutionary and as it turns out we were thinking about saving space long before the advent of the 21st century, although not as obsessively as we do today.

Microfiche and their document types

A4 size documents were usually stored on 16mm microfiche negatives and in some cases A3, but anything about that such as architects drawings, plans or blueprints would go onto 35mm microfiche. Although 16mm microfiche were amongst the most popular, the 35mm were always the most useful due to the colossal size of architects drawings etc. and the sheer amount of space that would be saved.

Technically microfiche was the digitisation of their day and were very sought after for a long time. With the advent of smaller and better solutions in the last 30 years and the rise of digitally produced documents, microfiche were simply outclassed. Today when the contents are required the user must either use an increasingly rare microfiche reader which can be bought expensively due to their now niche appeal or they can still be found in some large libraries. However, due to the cost of microfiche readers and the sheer quantity of microfiche that need to be looked through sometimes, they are more often than not digitised and disposed of through companies that offer microfiche scanning as a service. We talk about how microfiche conversion is better than a microfiche reader here.

So what are the advantages of microfiche, even today?

Microfiche do still have one appeal that isn't offered by their successors such as the CD, DVD and external hard-drives; their life spans. It is reckoned that microfiche will be effective for upward of 500 years, whereas CDs and DVDs are supposedly only supposed to have a lifespan of around 10. So they do still have their uses, although they have become considerably more inconvenient over time.

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Document Scanning by Pearl Scan


The Scan-do Peopletm

For more information feel free to give us a call: 
Nationwide: 0845 22 55 923         London: 0207 183 1885
Manchester: 0161 832 7991         Birmingham: 0121 285 1900

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